Location & Dates

The accommodation is booked from Saturday 26th December (Boxing Day) until Monday 4th January, although I expect that most people will not want to arrive until Sunday 27th December. The fact we have it until the Monday means that those wishing to go on the official CUHWC Seathwaite trip can do so.

Saturday 2nd (Tom and Valerie A)

Sunday 3rd

Meals to be sorted independently en route back to the various places. [AW]

Shopping

Vicky will be giving someone a shopping list of her stuff

What shop is near Shiel Bridge?

There is a Co-Op in Kyle of Lochalsh, although I think from memory it is quite small [AW]

The nearest supermarket of any size is Morrisons in Fort William. This isn't that near so you really want to buy everything except maybe for milk when you drive past it [PF]

There is also a Lidl in Fort William behind Morrisons. Perhaps we should get most stuff there and then use Morrisons for the things we can't get in Lidl [PF]

Note that Morrisons in Fort William closes at 6pm on Sunday, Lidl at 7pm. This may be too early for anyone driving up. As an alternative there are 24 Hour (even on a Sunday as Scotland doesn't restrict Sunday hours) Tescos next to both the M74 and M8 in Glasgow.

Kit

Requirements

The weather could be extreme Scottish winter. This means there could be a lot of snow, ice and extremely cold conditions. If you are wanting to go up onto the high fells in such conditions, there will be a requirement to be competent in use of crampons and ice axe.

Borrowing

Vicky requires crampons and ice axe from the Club as she has no hold luggage

Zekang C would like to borrow crampons and ice axe from the Club and probably need to learn how to use them.

Matt H has no crampons or ice axe or experience with them

Arion has no crampons or ice axe or experience with them

Paul F needs to borrow an ice axe couldn't resist a cashback deal from his bank and bought a shiny new alpine axe as his climbing axes aren't terribly suitable for normal walking and it seems unlikely that anyone else will suddenly get a desire to go ice climbing.

We could really do with a couple of helmets for practicing ice axe arrests. I doubt that we'd be contemplating any walks that would need them, but intentionally throwing yourself down a (small, nicely bottoming out on something flat) slope is a different matter - PF

AL has a lightweight Petzl climbing helmet which she is willing to lend out to those doing winter mountaineering as she will be sticking to low level stuff that doesn't require crampons/ ice axes